Peppers

Hooray!!!

This is fascinating - so much to learn!! So - how about we get something like this: http://newandusedboat.co.uk/new-boats-for-sale/160 (as an example) Then get a decent (albeit land) builder/joiner, combined with a boat electrician and a boat gas person to get it to a decent enough empty-boat sort of standard - which we should have more than enough money to do if we were going to spend 80k - right?! Does that sound correct or am I missing something? So so so glad I came here!

Next stupid question then - does everything on a boat need to be done by a specific boat fitter or are most things doable by a decent builder? Ie. If we bought a sailaway, I think we'd need some help with the electrics, gas and cladding. We could fit a kitchen and bits like that, but is there anything specific we should know about hiring someone to do bits we feel less confident doing?

thanks - any other thoughts on newish or used?

Would it make more sense to go for something like: https://www.apolloduck.com/feature.phtml?id=490699 or https://www.apolloduck.com/feature.phtml?id=438353 if we're not shy of a bit of work? I'm understanding more now that they're basically the same boat with a different fit out.

Oh thank you, I'd never even heard of this?! Hmmm...I think number one could make more sense for me - bearing in mind I'll already be floating around on the fairly dirty London waters! What's a bit more?!

Yeah I was thinking about this. How could I check if there is any finance owed on it? Any way of C&RT knowing about anything like this - or could it come up in a survey? And on that - I would definitely be coming back here for advice on who could conduct a survey too! Are there any other methods for checking?

When I go I will try and take some snaps. There is very little in terms of a fit out other than the bathroom and some shelving units, which all seemed good. I totally understand what you're saying about the price and think if we were to proceed with it we'd have to go in with a much lower offer. As others (obviously from a better standard of build etc) are more like £130,000 and we just don't have that to spend - I'm fairly comfortable going down the budget end of the market, but the price of course should reflect the quality. And thanks Peter - for me being able to do some of my own adaptions are so important as I've been to look at quite a few that are really not to my taste, and I'd end up just ripping stuff out. I'm an artist though, so obviously I want to make my mark!

Oh well I'll certainly try that! I'm a cash buyer in a very flexible position so I'm pretty happy to call myself King! I'll take a look at Rugby Boat Sales also I've been to see it already and it seems like a nice boat. Open layout, plenty of opportunity to put our own mark on it - but I'm a bit like someone who says I only like black cars - it's my technical knowledge that fails me - I don't know what toilet or inverter etc etc we should be going for, and while we have some money to paint it and put bits in like a hob, I just don't want to buy a dud.

All the widebeams for sale on apollo duck are so expensive!! I'm more than happy to purchase from outside London and move it down, but this was one of the cheapest I've actually seen! Is there somewhere to look that I'm missing?

Eeeek - can someone help me with this bit - what's the difference? What do you think a more sensible price might be for it? I have no idea about kit levels so this is what I was worried about!

In fact - this is the one we're currently eyeing up if anyone would mind taking a look? There are only two pics which isn't helpful so it might be impossible to get a sense of...we will hopefully go and see it again next week and I can take some more pics if people could suggest which ones might be the right ones to take? http://narrowboats.apolloduck.co.uk/advert.phtml?id=466442 As I said before it needs blacking, and exterior painting. I know thats an expensive job, but we know an artist who paints murals etc for a living, so although we won't be having anything like that he's pretty good outdoors in difficult places with a paintbrush. The interior is just sort of bare at the minute, which we like as its a bit of a clean slate - although there is a log burner on the right hand side. There basically isn't a kitchen, just a worktop, but we could put that in and just get someone decent to fit an oven/hob. Any initial alarm bells for anyone?

Thank you all so much for your time and help! This is a great comfort to hear! Far different to so many of the scare stories I've already been told suggesting it would be completely impossible. And this is so helpful, thank you so much. I'm a so-far silent member of London Boaters on Facebook and it seems full of very usefully information - and the occasional argument! I'll contact Jess Good for sure And these are really useful tips (and your fatboat looks a beaut ) - are you saying you would have the kitchen and lounge at the stern or not? I think the boat we currently have our eye on has a log burner on the starboard side - is it sensible to move this? My partners pretty handy and I think we'll soon get a bit of engine maintenance under our belts - I'll want to do a course I think.

Great this is such a help! Undoubtedly we will be far too scared to do this for the first few months of our boat ownership anyway at the risk of offending anyone and being ostracised from the entire boating community. We've fully prepared ourselves that our politeness and anxiety about incorrect etiquette will mean we spend most of our first few months saying sorry to anyone we see while we float around the very outskirts of London continuously searching for moorings, but hey ho

Do you think we'd have a problem on the GU going from London to Milton Keynes in a fat boat then? Knowing about the handle and stability is very welcome to hear too as we'd got it in our heads it could be the complete opposite way around!

Ahh ok - so wherever there are mooring rings you could potentially moor? And also - what's the ettiequte with mooring up alongside someone else? Do you ask their permission first - what would happen if they are not home? How do you attract their attention in the first place? These are stupid questions I'm sure!

Hi Alan, Thank for your suggestion, but we do actually need to remain in the London area. In part because we have family here but also because the vast majority of our work that is not at home is in London (Connor works in theatre mostly which is usually London based, and I'm a university lecturer too). It's not the cheap flat option, although I don't think this is necessarily a negative for those who do make that choice, but rather a different way of experiencing the city we love whilst taking up a lifestyle we think we'll enjoy. I know the areas around Stratford/Hackney/Kings Cross and Little Venice are particularly congested and to be honest I'd quite happily just keep going on past these if we can't ever find mooring space there. The boat we've taken a particular liking to is already based in London, so hopefully we wouldn't be so much adding another two boats to the water as much as just replacing the two people aboard. I love fat-boat - much friendlier With regards to mooring are there particular maps which show exactly where you can and cannot moor? Just because I frequently see spaces on the London canals and wonder why they are empty when all I ever read is about how the canals here are so congested? I'm always looking for parking space signs or something, but I don't think it probably works like that?!

Thanks so much for sharing your blog Dean, I can't believe how quickly you managed to get all that work done! It's also a great help to hear that you find the widebeam steam and easy to navigate. I get the sense that once we get the hang of it we won't know any different and will wonder why we were concerned, but all the same it is really comforting to hear of other peoples experiences. Any further thoughts greatly appreciated.

Hello there, I'm new to this forum and to boating generally, so please be gentle with me. My partner and I are on the hunt for a new boat, to live on, in and around London. We aware of the continuous cruising rules and how tricky it can be to maintain accustomed comfort levels as opposed to land living, but we're quite prepared for this. To be honest, we have moved around a great deal and are currently living in a live/work solution next to a waste disposal unit, which is not exactly luxury living either. Personally I've lived in a few "alternative living" settings and see it as another exciting challenge, particularly one that allows one to move around so much. For my partner, he just loves boats and it would be a bit of a dream for him to call one home. We initially set out thinking we would look for a narrowboat, probably no longer than 50ft but after a fair bit of searching I don't think they offer us enough space. I'm an artist and so would need a 'studio' area as well as our living areas. I'm also currently doing my PhD which means I spend the majority of my time working from home. My partner is a composer and also works from home most of the time, so some extra space means we are less likely to annoy one another if we are working and living in one space together all day every day. As I say, we currently live in a very tiny live/work studio so this is a scenario I know very well. My partner's also a little tall for many of the smaller boats we have been on. So - we started to look at widebeams, and have been to see a lovely 60ft x 12ft that I have developed a bit of a soft spot for. We'd need to paint it, black it, put a kitchen in and generally sort out some questionable decorating but I can very much imagine us living and working there really happily. My partner's the one who will be primarily in charge of steering, driving, mooring etc at first - just because he has some experience with boats and I don't, but he's not driven one this big before and is questioning whether it is something we will just get used to or whether it will actually be a pain. He'd like to give it a go, and we've been searching to see if we could hire a widebeam for a day or night or two but at this time of year they all seem to be being enjoyed for holidays. I know widebeams are not liked by some (hence my title), but beyond personal preference is there any reason why one should not choose them if it better suits their needs? One extra thing that we would love to be able to do is travel from London to Milton Keynes and back because my family live in that area and we would love to be able to take the boat as opposed to cycling or the train. I've checked some maps and things that suggest that would be possible in a 60 x 12 boat, but does anyone know anything to the contrary? Apologies if there is anything naively incorrect about what I've said. Thank you all so much for your time and help in advance.